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A first for South Rowan: Raiders capture first state title, in any team sport, in school history

Raiders come back to sweep the final two games of NCHSAA 3A baseball state finals to win the first state championship in school history
Gary Adornato|
A first for South Rowan: Raiders capture first state title, in any team sport, in school history
A first for South Rowan: Raiders capture first state title, in any team sport, in school history

To say the South Rowan Raiders were resilient throughout this weekend’s North Carolina High School Athletic Association 3A baseball state championship series would be a huge understatement.

Already down one game to none to South Brunswick in the best of three series, South Rowan found itself on the brink of elimination as it trailed 2-0 in the first inning of the second game, Saturday afternoon at Ting Stadium in Holly Springs.

The Raiders, however, rallied for a 4-2 victory, before rallying from deficits of 5-0 and 6-1 in the third game of the series to win, 11-6, and capture the first state championship, in any team sport, in school history.

The final run to a state title began in the fourth inning of the third game when Nathan Chrismon delivered a bases loaded hit which scored a pair of runs and pulled the Raiders within two at 6-4. South Rowan got a little help in the fourth inning when it scored on a balk and a wild pitch to tie the game at six.

The go-ahead run was scored by Haiden Leffew, in the fifth, also on a wild pitch, just ahead of a two-run single by Colton Fisher which pushed South Rowan’s lead to 9-6. The final two runs also scored in the fifth on a two-run error.

The Raiders (30-6) then put the game in the hands of junior pitcher Cole Thomas who worked through the final two innings without allowing a run and clinching the state championship.

Starter Chandler Oddie earned the win, going the first five innings, blanking the Cougars over his final two frames after struggling in the early going.

In the earlier game, South Rowan tied the game, at 2-2, with back-to-back RBI doubles by Ty Hubbard and Leffew in the third inning. Hubbard added an RBI single in the fifth, to give the Raiders the lead, and Jacob Ritchie added an insurance run, in the top of the seventh, with an RBI single.

South Rowan first-baseman J.D. James, who was 6-for-10 in the series was named Most Valuable Player in the series.

South Brunswick finished the year at 25-5.

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Gary Adornato
GARY ADORNATO

Gary Adornato began covering high school sports with the Baltimore Sun in 1982, while still a mass communications major at Towson University, and in 2003 became one of the first journalists to cover high school sports online while operating MIAASports.com, the official website of the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association. Later, Adornato pioneered market-wide coverage of high school sports with DigitalSports.com, introducing video highlights and player interviews while assembling an award-winning editorial staff. In 2010, he launched VarsitySportsNetwork.com which became the premier source of high school media coverage in the state of Maryland. In 2022, he sold VSN to The Baltimore Banner and joined SBLive Sports as the company's East Coast Managing Editor.

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